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27th February 2007, 05:09 PM
| #1 |
| Gear maniac  Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 216
| Any TAXI success stories out there? I've read on this site that a few people have recommended TAXI as a way of shopping their music. However, these recommendations (that I read) were not accompanied by success stories or even if they have personally used the service. Anyways, after reading about TAXI online I decided to have them send me their promotional package. I must say, for the price and what they "claim" to do for you, I can't help but think, what have I got to loose, it is only $300/yr. Well it may only be $300/yr but I really don't want to throw money out the window if it is not going to do anything for us. Soooo..... Has any of you used TAXI successfully? Is it worth the $300? Thanks for any input. |
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27th February 2007, 05:35 PM
| #2 |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 881
| I think the guy that started TAXI has been very successful.... ;) |
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27th February 2007, 05:39 PM
| #3 |
| Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 216
| lol - ya, I think the poeple that work there are successful as well.  |
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27th February 2007, 05:40 PM
| #4 | |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Atlanta
Posts: 951
| Quote:
__________________ "you know, while you're at it...what i miss more than anything else? i miss just working on music, for godsake. just hanging with musicians and figuring out what the hell to do. what the F**K is it when all we talk about is gear...gear...and more gear???" - GM | |
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27th February 2007, 05:56 PM
| #5 | |
| Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 216
| Quote:
"Dear Sir, Thank you very much for your submission. We are please to tell you that we find your music to have great potential in the current marketplace. Please send us $5,000 and we will tell you have to further promote yourself." Yours truly, The TAXI driver | |
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27th February 2007, 06:02 PM
| #6 | |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 618
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27th February 2007, 06:09 PM
| #7 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 1,260
| I know one band that uses it, they like the critiques (I gather they're fairly in-depth), and they seem to think it's worth the $5. My feeling is that if someone is charging you money to promote your music, they're probably not going to do a great job. That's why managers, publishers, etc typically take a percentage. At least that way both parties are on the same side of the money equation...
__________________ --------------------------------- Suitcase Recordings Indie, Punk, Garage - On Location Recording |
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27th February 2007, 06:12 PM
| #8 | |
| Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 216
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27th February 2007, 06:13 PM
| #9 | |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 618
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27th February 2007, 06:18 PM
| #10 | |
| Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 216
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27th February 2007, 06:25 PM
| #11 | |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 618
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27th February 2007, 06:33 PM
| #12 | |
| Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 216
| Quote:
As far as getting radio play, I would think that most bands try to get their stuff on the radio. Is it realistic for us? Maybe, maybe not. | |
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27th February 2007, 06:37 PM
| #13 | |
| Gear maniac  Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 261
| Quote:
Taxi is not that business. The owner (and the company itself) is absolutely, 100% committed to helping writers become successful. "Canned" responses can sometimes take the form of "There is no critique offered for this submission, materials submitted will be responded to by a YES or NO only", but those opporunities are clearled labeled as such and do not make up the majority of their listings. TRUST ME - as a Taxi member who has many rejections as well as successes through them, as well as other channels - if your material is not right for a particular listing there is a much higher probability that you have yourself and your music to blame, NOT Taxi or their intentions. Rejection is diffficult for any of us to hear. Know this.... they won't "reject" you attending their free annual seminar, The Road Rally, which is free with membership. In fact, Taxi members can bring a non-member friend to the Rally for free, as well. Join up, submit some material, gauge the feedback, attend the Rally, and then see if it's something you want to be part of going forward.... absolute WORST case scenario is that you find out your material ain't quite what Taxi is looking for and you're out a couple hundred bucks... and THAT'S only if you listen to NOTHING they say and take none of their advice.... which, to me, seems pointless.
__________________ Daniel Holter Burst HQ - my recording studio "It's easy to say you'll never sell out when no one's making any offers." "After silence that which expresses the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley | |
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27th February 2007, 06:46 PM
| #14 | |
| Gear maniac Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 261
| Quote:
Having your myspace friends weigh in on your tunes is all fine and dandy, but that doesn't get you anywhere near the opportunities or feedback that Taxi is all about. The critiques you'll get back from Taxi will range in quality, of course, but cover much more ground than "dude, your songs are awesome."
__________________ Daniel Holter Burst HQ - my recording studio "It's easy to say you'll never sell out when no one's making any offers." "After silence that which expresses the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley | |
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27th February 2007, 06:48 PM
| #15 | |
| Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 216
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27th February 2007, 06:48 PM
| #16 | |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 618
| Quote:
"All you need to know about the music business" is a good book to start with | |
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27th February 2007, 06:51 PM
| #17 | |
| Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 216
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27th February 2007, 06:56 PM
| #18 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 528
| If you are looking for input on your songs then call up a management company, or entertainment lawyer that shops around demos, and ask them their demo submission policy. If its good they'll get back to you, if they don't call you back, don't worry and still keep writing. I wouldn't start a myspace page until your songs are the best they can be. One thing I don't understand is bands posting and release songs before they songs are any good. Don't do the same thing they do, you get one shot to make a good impression. Make statments with your songs, don't make statements on myspace. If you want a successful music career put the music ahead of everything else and once your songs start to speak to people, the big wigs will notice and come knocking. If you trying to get on the radio, check with stations do local radio, try college campuses. And if your tune is good people will call and ask about the song. If they don't, then you know that its not striking a chord with people. |
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27th February 2007, 07:05 PM
| #19 | |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 618
| Quote:
Spot on. This industry loves artists who come out of nowhere, just appear one today, totally ready, with amazing songs. That's the kind of artists A&R guys are looking for. But MySpace can still be a great tool. Just start a music site under a fake name. And when you finally have great songs you launch your real site. | |
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27th February 2007, 07:23 PM
| #20 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: berlin
Posts: 1,667
 | i have an indie promoter. he gets percentage when he ACTUALLY sells one of my tracks to tv/film. no single $ upfront. so he makes a living from selling music, not from contracting musicians. YMMV |
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27th February 2007, 07:27 PM
| #21 | |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 528
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27th February 2007, 07:40 PM
| #22 |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,375
| how would you find a entertainment lawyer that shops demos? I think this is the point. Taxi bills themselves primarily as a service that has direct connections to the stream of people who CAN take you to the next level. The critique service, they advertise, is a means to that end. I dunno what to think about them. |
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27th February 2007, 07:46 PM
| #23 |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 528
| Well you can use them, and if you decide its not for you, you can always stop. It ain't the mob. Anyway, do a websearch for entertainment law, in NYC, and call up the different entertainment lawyers out in NYC and start asking about the demo submission policy. |
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27th February 2007, 07:49 PM
| #24 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: NYC
Posts: 2,584
| I completely disagree with the idea of waiting til your music is ready on Myspace. I've seen many acts do it with horrible sounding music, yet the fans still react. I've found many bands this way myself. And I know many labels do too. I would rather here some real raw talent than a well produced demo showing me how little potential an artist really has. Honestly, I've passed on many bands because their demo was too good. Thinking, "well the production is great, why don't I like it then?" Some of the early myspace adopters have hundreds of thousands of friends. These fans aren't there for critique either. They are your base. Proof to the world that somebody diggs it. And the bands grow and there popularity does too. And Taxi: Yeah. I lived in NYC for 6 years and I've had many favorable transactions with a Taxi. 
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27th February 2007, 08:24 PM
| #25 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: May 2004 Location: Lost Angeles
Posts: 1,781
| Using MySpace for a music critique is like getting high schoolers to grade each other's papers. Agreed, the fan base/grass roots thing with MySpace is cool. But a serious music critique? You're joking. Yeah -- "This sounds like it should be on the radio!!!" <-- That's your first clue. Much of MySpace Music is somewhere between "inmates running the asylum" and "by morons, for morons." Besides, it is incumbent upon music people on MySpace to be "friend collectors" (why?), because this somehow proves appeal, so expect four out of five comments on your page to read something like this: "Sounds great! Yeah! Be sure to check out myspace.com/total-loser-Portland We're taking over, LOL LOL!!!" I've been in the offices of A & R's, and I've seen Taxi logos (etc.) on submissions, so I know they're crossing the desks of the people you're trying to get them to. And that's really what you pay them for -- in fact, Taxi steers clear of the deals or communication -- once the music gets to the A&R/music supervisor/whatever, Taxi actually ceases to be a part of any communication or transaction. I remember recently they were asking members who had gotten deals/placements to come forward, because they have no way of actually keeping track. If Taxi allowed submissions by producers and not just writers, I'd join in a second, but you are only allowed to submit if you are a writer or co-writer on a project.
__________________ "We need to legitimize peer-to-peer sharing as a business model, because it's already a business. If [the P2P companies] are going to make money on us, we should have a chance to make money along with them." -- Perry Farrell on the failure of national intellectual property policy to keep up with the rapid evolution of online media "Every Internet transmission of a musical work constitutes a public performance of that work. " http://www.ascap.com/weblicense/webfaq.html |
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27th February 2007, 08:30 PM
| #26 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Sacramento
Posts: 5,924
| But I've yet to hear from someone who has actually gotten one of their songs through via Taxi. I know it must happen. I had a good friend of mine wo has since passed, who made money singing demos FOR Taxi. I don't know exactly how that worked. Maybe Taxi found a demo they thought they could sell of they did some production changes. But he was employeed BY Taxi. At least that's what he said. He was an artist formerly employeed by Motown and MCA. And a talented songwrter. He let drugs get the better of him. But that's another digresson . . .
__________________ All the best, Henry Robinett |
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27th February 2007, 08:38 PM
| #27 | |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 618
| Quote:
Two bands I know deal with Dan Friedman. Pretty popular entertainment lawyer. danielrfriedman@aol.com | |
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